Why Potnian?

I have long been aware that the term Minoan, used first by Sir Arthur
Evans to describe the civilisation of ancient Crete he began discovering
in 1900, was a misnomer. If there was ever a King Minos in Crete it was
after the natural disaster destroyed that civilisation around 1450
BC. It is now clearer than ever that during the preceding centuries, the
periods Evans called early, middle and late Minoan, there was no king or
male ruler in the land: in fact there seems to have been no major ruler
at all. The so called temple palaces, such as great Knossos, have been
shown to be temples of the Goddess, designed for rituals of initiation
and great festivals of dance and seasonal ritual, all presided over not
by a royal family, but by a shamanic priesthood, the most important of
whom were female.

The culture they presided over was one of the utmost grace, aesthetic
and technical sophistication, and seems to have been peaceful. Their incomparable
art reflected a joy in life and nature. Their calendric and astrological
skills were highly advanced, as was their architecture and engineering.
The name of the Goddess found on the earliest script deciphered at Knossos
was Potnia, translated as Our Lady, and it was She to whom the offerings
to the temple were made. This was the one place in the whole of Europe
where the civilisation of the Goddess survived the neolithic era and progressed
into the Bronze Age. Here the Goddess survived and a peaceful, artistic,
Goddess loving people spread their influence through many neighbouring
countries long since turned barbaric under the warlike influence of
northern invaders.

I realised this year while in Crete that I could no longer be part of
the collusion that calls a Goddess culture by the name of a later King,
and that I would henceforth refer to the civilisation as Potnian. I further
realised that this would involve me in committing myself to Her service
by finding ways to live as a modern Priestess of Potnia. This possibility
opened to me by finding myself working alongside my friend Rose, who is
a Priestess of Avalon. Suddenly it feels it is time for women to take their
place and power and claim status in the religious realm, from which we
have long been excluded. Not by asking for small power in established religions,
but by asserting our own sense of spirituality, which is both very old
indeed and very new, both informed and unformed.

We will need all our humour, wisdom, courage, mutual support, and the
support of our brothers, but the time has come. We need to know all our
rhythms and dance all our dances.